Maine entrepreneurs will compete, ‘Shark Tank’-style, for $100,000

Fans of ABC’s “Shark Tank” can look forward to a homegrown version of the reality TV show that will pit Maine entrepreneurs against each other for a chance to win up to $100,000.

Greenlight Maine is a new half-hour show that will air Saturday nights after “Bill Green’s Maine” on WCSH-TV in Portland and WLBZ-TV in Bangor beginning in September. It’s a collaboration between local production company Portland Media Group and the organizers of Maine Startup and Create Week.

The casting call for Greenlight Maine began Friday. Entrepreneurs interested in trying out for the competition are required to submit short video pitches through an online portal between Friday and June 13. Up to 40 quarterfinalists will be selected to pitch at a live event held during Maine Startup and Create Week. Emerging from that event will be 26 semifinalists who will participate in the television show when it begins taping in July. Greenlight Maine will culminate in June 2016, when the entrepreneurs left standing will compete in a live pitch event for the $100,000 prize. Further instructions and contest details are available at Maine Startup and Create Week’s website.

Brian Corcoran, president of Shamrock Sports and Entertainment, a sports marketing firm in Portland, and one of the partners in Portland Media Group, said the show will be driven by the “tailwinds” generated around entrepreneurship in Maine by events such as Maine Startup and Create Week, which is taking place this June 22-26.

While there are other business pitch contests in the state with cash prizes, such as Gorham Savings Bank’s LaunchPad competition and the Top Gun Showcase, which took place June 3, Corcoran said he saw an opportunity to create a larger platform through a statewide television show.

“I think we saw a void in that there was no bigger platform, specifically television and multimedia, to bring all this exciting activity under one umbrella,” Corcoran said.

He believes Greenlight Maine, with its statewide reach and $100,000 cash purse, will “provide a whole new level of awareness and horsepower” to Maine’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Corcoran’s partners in Portland Media Group are Nat Thompson, a former commercial production manager at WCSH and a member of the family that owned and operated the NBC affiliates in Maine from their inception in the 1920s until their sale to Gannett Co. in 1998, and Con Fullam, a music and television producer based in Portland.

Portland Media Group is collaborating with Jess Knox, a founder of Maine Startup and Create Week and statewide hub coordinator of Blackstone Accelerates Growth, and Don Gooding, executive director of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development.

The initiative aims to be a “catalyst” for further development of Maine’s entrepreneurial community, Knox said. Not only will it give a venue for entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas, it also will also draw other stakeholders into the entrepreneurial community. For example, business leaders will participate as mentors and judges during the television show.

“It’s not just a TV show. It’s about building the ecosystem and building the community,” Knox said. “That’s why we say it’s more than a TV show – it’s a movement.”

“As small-business owners ourselves, we are excited to pay it forward and pave the way for a new chapter of businesses to tap into the awareness, insights, mentoring and financial resources Greenlight Maine brings to the table,” Corcoran said.

He said $100,000 is just the beginning. He’s hoping they’ll be able to raise substantially more, perhaps even $250,000.

“We feel confident based on other conversations we’re having with foundations that we’ll far surpass the $100,000 mark,” he said.

Portland Media Group didn’t set out to develop a local version of “Shark Tank.” Corcoran and his partners were aiming to produce some television shows with national and perhaps even global audiences. But after participating in last year’s inaugural Maine Startup and Create Week, Corcoran said “the stars just aligned.”

“We realized maybe we were getting a little over our skis to play in the global space. We have the relationships to get our foot into doors in New York and elsewhere, but sometimes you need to scale back and put a proof of concept in place,” Corcoran said. “Greenlight Maine is the right launch pad for us to showcase our stuff in our own backyard.”

While he said the Greenlight Maine teams is “laser-focused” on making the debut season a success, he did say the concept for the show is scalable and could be reproduced in other states.

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